4 ms·

Is there no land to build on left as everything is agriculture?

consp 4y ago
Every cm2 has been allocated and changing it will take something away to be replaced by something else, either water as land, agriculture as houses or any other flow you can imagine (and they all have been done).
- RandomLensman 4y ago
  If people have nowhere to live some non-farm land could be reallocated - but, yes, sure it'd be a fight.
yourusername 4y ago
No it's a legal problem. The Netherlands decided it would be a great idea to have 150+ nature preserves in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. European law requires the Netherlands to protect these areas from nitrogen deposition (NOx, NH3). A Dutch judge declared the Netherlands has to comply with this European law so now no activity that causes any nitrogen deposition can get a permit even if building houses is less than 1% of NO2/NH3 emissions. It's a mess created by a government 20 years ago.
- RandomLensman 4y ago
  That would sound like a fixable policy problem by changing laws etc.
  - consp 4y ago
    Unfortunately those laws are European and we do not have much to say about it anymore since the government wanted to milk the Natura2000 subsidies (sidenote they also went to farmers).
    - mistrial9 4y ago
      if your situation is anything like the USA - those payments went to corporate farms, not family farms.
- mcv 4y ago
  If you put it like that, less agriculture in such a densely populated country doesn't sound like such a bad idea. But you're absolutely right; it's a mess that has been left to fester for far too long. A previous law, that was struck down, allowed farms to expand on the assumption that those expansions would at some later time result in less nitrogen. That of course didn't happen, but massive farm expansions have been driven through that loophole. Farmers have also been misled by banks wanted to fund those irresponsible expansions.
ralfn 4y ago
Even with all the agricultural lands Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries. The issue is that our the lack of cheap land actually made our agricultural sector very competitive. They need high yields to be viable, so they made the investments (equipment, r&d) to have extremely high yields. More than 80℅ ends up being exported.

Every cm2 has been allocated and changing it will take something away to be replaced by something else, either water as land, agriculture as houses or any other flow you can imagine (and they all have been done).

RandomLensman 4y ago
If people have nowhere to live some non-farm land could be reallocated - but, yes, sure it'd be a fight.

yourusername 4y ago

No it's a legal problem. The Netherlands decided it would be a great idea to have 150+ nature preserves in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. European law requires the Netherlands to protect these areas from nitrogen deposition (NOx, NH3). A Dutch judge declared the Netherlands has to comply with this European law so now no activity that causes any nitrogen deposition can get a permit even if building houses is less than 1% of NO2/NH3 emissions. It's a mess created by a government 20 years ago.

RandomLensman 4y ago
That would sound like a fixable policy problem by changing laws etc.
- consp 4y ago
  Unfortunately those laws are European and we do not have much to say about it anymore since the government wanted to milk the Natura2000 subsidies (sidenote they also went to farmers).
  - mistrial9 4y ago
    if your situation is anything like the USA - those payments went to corporate farms, not family farms.
mcv 4y ago
If you put it like that, less agriculture in such a densely populated country doesn't sound like such a bad idea. But you're absolutely right; it's a mess that has been left to fester for far too long. A previous law, that was struck down, allowed farms to expand on the assumption that those expansions would at some later time result in less nitrogen. That of course didn't happen, but massive farm expansions have been driven through that loophole. Farmers have also been misled by banks wanted to fund those irresponsible expansions.

ralfn 4y ago

Even with all the agricultural lands Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries. The issue is that our the lack of cheap land actually made our agricultural sector very competitive. They need high yields to be viable, so they made the investments (equipment, r&d) to have extremely high yields. More than 80℅ ends up being exported.